"grace", Vivienne Westwood Bridal Collection, 2022

Blood Meridian by violet_persephone

Chapter 5: Interlude I: Across America, Seasons Change

A jerk of movement pulls her into consciousness. She’s no longer on the ground; she’s in someone’s arms, Inej realizes with a start. Her fingers twitch, seeking out one of her knives, but so much pain is radiating from her arm that she can’t move.

Whoever is carrying her isn’t doing so gently. With each staggering step, Inej is wrenched against the person’s chest.

“Inej? Are you awake?” says a rasping voice.

Kaz. Kaz is carrying her.

“Kaz?” Inej says. Her voice is hoarse from the vomiting and the drinking.

“Yes. It’s me. We’re almost there.”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56463739/chapters/163618366

It's actually kind of insane how little the rest of the Crows canonically know about Inej's past when you think about it

I know we know all of these awful, terrible details about Inej's abduction and year in the Menagerie, but I think a lot of people forget that no one else knows what she went through. She keeps her own secrets and trauma as close as she does everyone else's. Even Kaz only has "the barest inkling of what she’d endured there," and he's both someone whose actual job entailed collecting secrets from Heleen and the only one who ever actually saw Inej there.

Jesper and Nina probably know some of it (probably different parts than Kaz, who knows different parts than either of them), but there's so much about that time that Inej just. doesn't talk about. with anyone, and the only reason anyone knows about it at all is because there was literally no hiding where she came from and what happened to her

this also led me to the realization that most of our knowledge of Inej's childhood and Suli culture comes from her internal monologues, the flashbacks to her and her parents, or her time in captivity when she's being sweet-talked by Bajan and not anything she actually says out loud to anyone of her own free will

so now I'm just like….thinking about how little Inej actually says about herself to other people and how isolated that probably made her feel during her time with the Dregs

Thank you so much for answering! I had no idea what Wiktionary (though i probably should since i took german for 5 years and took linguistics as one of my college courses) and it looks so much better than google translate! Don’t worry, i didn’t think you were representing these languages in that way, i’m just amazed how you combine sorta real words to make your dialogue so interesting. i too would like to bastardize some languages for my own works, but wasn’t sure how to get the ball rolling on said bastardization! this has helped a lot! you’re the best, linny! :)

hello! quick question: how do you conduct your research regarding languages? Like which sources do you use to find accurate translations of different words in different languages? i so admire the way you use languages in your fics; it’s so impressive! please share your wisdom, linny, i would greatly appreciate it! :)

(aka a struggling writer that has found that googling just doesn’t cut it)

I am flattered by this ask but feel the need to emphasize that much of the language stuff in my fics is totally made up! Like, I do often use real words, and try to mimic the sounds of some real words sometimes but especially in the case of Suli I am imposing a pretty much entirely fictitious grammar. I also take real words and declare them to have alternate meanings. I am neither doing pure conlang nor representing authentic languages.

All that said! Wiktionary is my best friend. I often use an online dictionary (Cambridge has a good selection of languages and will often save you from, for example, wanting a translation of “give up” and unwittingly getting words that mean “[hand over] [opposite of down]” instead of “surrender” or “leave off”) to get either a word I want or a close relative. Then I take the word the dictionary gave me to Wiktionary to see things like its grammatical construction, its etymological root, or its cousin words, and then I fuck around until I get a sound I like.

(For example, the Dutch word “to fuck” is “neuken.” I didn’t like the sound of that, so I took it to Wiktionary and found the slang synonym “batsen,” which also means to bounce or slap. I wanted to mimic the hard sound of the English “fuck,” so I switched the s and the t, and so when Kaz is talking dirty in the Ballads fics, he uses a lot of words with the root “bast-” including “verbast” to mean “fucking” in the sense of a gerundive intensifier, though literally meaning something like “befucked.” (Actual Dutch doesn’t use profanities as English-speakers think of them as intensifiers.) The ver- prefix as a gerund is parallel to when Kaz asks Inej not to leave him— “jet kennet me verzaken,” with the last word breaking down literally to ver-zak-en, something like “do leaving to, make left.” But also cognate to the English “forsaken,” which is really why I did it.)

I hope this confession of my tangled and honestly somewhat whim-and-aesthetics-driven methodology doesn’t diminish me too much in your eyes! I am so, so serious about my apologies to languages.

I have now edited this twice for clarity; I am so bad at this; I’m sorry.

i’m OBSESSED

darling boy.

prints + merch + dm for commission info :)

Two-piece silk evening gown

c. 1865-1869

pink and white silk brocade evening gown made in Paris, France in the 1860s

Minnesota Historical Society

Fic Commissions for Hurricane Relief

Hi friends! So, I've never done anything like this before, but I've seen plenty of fic writers/artists on Tumblr and beyond offer commissions and prompt-fills as a fundraising venture. Maybe no one will be interested, and that's totally fine! But if you've enjoyed any of my fics in the past and have (literally) a dollar to spare, I invite you to keep reading. :)

If you're not from the United States like I am, you might not have heard as much about it, but the southeastern U.S. was just hit with the deadliest mainland hurricane since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Given the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, I wanted to offer up my own fic-writing abilities for the cause. I personally donated to BeLoved Asheville, a local 501(c)(3) non-profit which was recommended to me by @carolinawrenn, a member of the fandom who's been personally affected by the Hurricane (e.g., literally has no running water at the moment, just like many thousands of others in the region). The American Red Cross is also taking donations for Hurricane Helene relief specifically.

If you're looking for a way to help out and receive some sweet sweet kanej content at the same time, here's what I'm proposing:

If you email me a receipt of your donation to BeLoved Asheville or the Red Cross, I'll write a Six of Crows drabble or fic of your choosing with the following minimum lengths (all dollar amounts in USD - I am happy to look up the conversion rates if you donate in another currency though, and I would round up to the nearest dollar in that case):

$1-5 donation: 100-word drabble

$6-20 donation: 500-word ficlet

$21-50 donation: 1,000-word fic

$51-99 donation: 2,000-word fic

$100+ donation: 3,000-word (or longer, who knows?) fic

If you've read any of my fics, you know that I primarily write kanej, but I'm willing to try my hand at any of the canon ships (e.g., wesper or helnik) and/or general, non-romance fic.

Please consider donating! I would be THRILLED if I got a bunch of $1 donations and had to write a bunch of 100-word drabbles. Every little bit counts. <3

If you're interested in participating, please submit to this form: https://forms.gle/kDG16K2Gr1TBEQFx6

And if you have ANY questions or concerns, feel free to reply below or message/ask me directly. :)

Sex is natural, and it is frustrating to be horny and not have a partner, but I refuse to believe people are driven to the depths of despair because they don't have sex. And even if they were, I would still not support "sex work" because a person's dignity and physical integrity will always be more important than someone's else feelings.

how to outline a story:

write a bullet point list of everything that happens

realize it doesn’t make sense

cry

start writing anyway

Miss Sohee Spring 2024

LANA DEL REY Coachella 2024